65 A Heart Is Stolen (16 page)

“You’ll ’urry up if you knows what’s good for you,” he said. “This knife’ll slice through your skin as if I was cuttin’ butter! Come on, now.”

As Ivana thought despairingly that there was nothing she could do but obey him, there was a footstep at the open door and there stood the Marquis!

For a moment everyone was still, then with a swiftness that afterwards seemed incredible, the Marquis not only took in at a glance exactly what was happening but acted.

He moved forward, raised his long wiry riding whip and brought it down with all his strength on the sailor’s hand which held the knife.

The man gave a yell, the knife clattered to the floor and the Marquis hit him under the chin with an uppercut that swept him off his feet.

He staggered, crashed down on the floor unconscious and out for the count.

Then, as the Marquis stood looking at him, a faint smile on his lips, Ivana flung herself at him and hid her face against his shoulder.

“T-thank God – you came!” she said incoherently, her voice breaking as she went on. “I was – f-frightened – and the only – m-money I have – was in the drawer with your – snuffboxes.”

The Marquis’s arms went round her and, as she trembled, he thought how slim and frail she was.

“You really worried about my snuffboxes with that unpleasant-looking customer holding a knife to your throat?”

“He was – hiding b-behind the – d-door,” Ivana murmured.

The Marquis appreciated how terrified she had been.

“It is all over now,” he said. “You are lucky that this sort of thing has not happened before.”

“The – wounded men would – never have – frightened me,” she answered, “and, since the – others have been – demobilised, I have had – Travers.”

“I suppose really I should apologise for taking him from you,” the Marquis said.

There was just a touch of amusement in his voice, which made Ivana realise the position she was in.

As if she suddenly became aware of the Marquis she moved from the shelter of his arms to say,

“W-what are we to d-do with – this man?”

“Is there anybody else here capable of giving me a hand?” the Marquis enquired.

“George can do – that,” Ivana replied. “He is very – strong although he – only has one leg.”

“Then let’s go and find George,” the Marquis said. “I suppose he is in the barn?”

Ivana nodded and he recognised that she was still finding it hard to speak.

As if he knew that she did not wish to be left alone, he put out his hand saying,

“We will go and find him together.”

Because she was still very pale and shaken by what had happened, Ivana took his hand almost gratefully.

Her small fingers fluttered in his and the Marquis found himself thinking that she was not, after all, the aggressive woman who had held him up as a highwayman, deliberately stolen his possessions and cheated him of his servants’ wages.

She was little more than a child who had been frightened by brute strength and a knife that might easily have killed her.

He told himself that this must not happen again.

As they walked hand-in-hand across the courtyard towards the door of the barn, he decided the first thing he must do was to send for Travers to take charge at Flagstaff Manor.

Then he thought, the man who had arrived might not be the only desperado ready to cause trouble not only here but in other parts of the neighbourhood.

For the second time that day it struck him that the Government’s action in dismissing enormous numbers of men and throwing them onto the countryside without work and without money might have serious repercussions.

They reached the barn and Ivana opened the door.

As he walked in, the Marquis found himself staring in amazement at what had been happening in the huge centuries-old tithe barn that had once held tons of grain.

At harvest time it had seen the labourers enjoying the festival dinner they looked forward all the year.

Now there were a number of mattresses on the floor and, as if to accommodate extra men in an emergency, there were hammocks strung from the ships’ beams that crossed the barn roof a few feet above a man’s head.

At the far end of the barn there were three men lying on mattresses and two others sitting in chairs talking to them.

They all had bandages on some part of their anatomy and, as Ivana walked towards them, the Marquis saw their faces light up with pleasure.

“This is the Marquis of Veryan,” Ivana said as she reached them, “and he has just knocked unconscious a very unpleasant man who was threatening me with a knife.”

“Threatening you, miss?” one of the sailors asked.

“He wanted to steal all the money I had in the house.”

“You should’ve called for us, miss,” another said. “We’d ’ve soon dealt with a feller like that!”

“I want you to come and deal with him now,” the Marquis intervened. “I do not wish to prosecute him, but to be rid of him altogether. I think the best thing would be if we dragged him outside the gates and left him beside the roadway.”

George, the man with the wooden leg, stood up.

“I can manage that, my Lord,” he said, “with the ’elp of Tim ’ere. ’E’s got one sound arm that’s worth two of any other man’s.”

Tim grinned sheepishly at the praise and he too rose to his feet.

“Come along then,” the Marquis said. “Let’s get him outside before he comes round and becomes abusive.”

He smiled at Ivana as he said,

“Give us five minutes before you come back to the house. I am sure these gentlemen will take care of you in the meantime.”

He walked away followed by George and Tim and Ivana watched them until the door of the barn closed behind them.

It was over five minutes before George and Tim came back looking flushed and hot, but obviously very pleased with themselves.

“We dragged ’im a good way, Miss,” George said to Ivana. “And shoved ’im in a ditch. Right place for ’im I says.”

“He is still unconscious?” Ivana enquired.

“Out like a light!” George replied, “and ’e’ll find every tooth in ’is ’ead loose when ’e does come round!”

The other men wanted to know exactly how the Marquis had hit him, but Ivana walked away and went back to the house.

As she expected, the Marquis was waiting for her in the drawing room.

As she entered the room, her eyes met his and she felt for one strange moment as if they were speaking to each other without words.

Then she said quickly in a shy little voice,

“H-how – can I thank you? If you had – not come – when you did – ”

“Forget it!” the Marquis interrupted. “But it is something that must not happen again. I have been thinking of what is the best thing to do.”

“You cannot – spare Travers, the footmen I sent with him have no experience and you would only be uncomfortable.”

“My comforts take second place to your safety, Mrs. Wadebridge.”

Ivana hesitated for a moment, then she said,

“There is – no need for you to – concern yourself with – me. I know you must be thinking it is – entirely my own fault that all this has happened. I suppose after – Papa died I should not have – stayed here alone – with Nanny – but there seemed nothing else I could do at the time – and I could not bear to close up my – home – and live with relatives.”

“I can understand that,” the Marquis said, “but are you not forgetting somebody who should have looked after you and made the decision for you?”

“Who is that?” Ivana asked in surprise.

“Your husband!”

Ivana’s eyelids fluttered and he saw the colour rise in a crimson flood up her pale cheeks.

“Yes – yes, of course,” she said after a moment’s silence, “but – he is – at sea.”

The Marquis seated himself in a chair beside the fireplace.

“I am very interested in your husband,” he said. “Tell me about him.”

“There – is nothing to – tell.”

“When were you married?”

“T-two – years ago.”

“Where?”

“Here in the – village.”

“You are quite certain of that? After all, it will be very easy to see a record of the ceremony in the Church register.”

There was silence and then Ivana asked,

“Why – why should you be – interested?”

“I am very interested,” the Marquis said, “because ever since we have known each other, you have behaved in a very unpredictable fashion and it is certainly something I did not expect when I came to Heathcliffe for peace and quiet.”

She did not reply. He gave a little laugh and went on,

“Both of which have been distinctly missing! First of all I am held up by a highwayman, then I discover I have been robbed by my nearest neighbour, thirdly I have to save her from what might have been a very unpleasant assault if I had not turned up in the nick of time.”

“I-I am trying to – thank you,” Ivana said, “but I suppose it puts me even more – heavily in your debt than – I am already.”

“I have thought of that,” the Marquis replied. “At the same time I have not forgotten that you have helped me out of a very uncomfortable situation.”

“I was wondering as I drove back here,” Ivana said, “how you would go about getting rid of your – newly acquired – wife.”

“I have thought of that too,” the Marquis admitted.

“Perhaps you could say I had drowned while bathing in the sea or that I had gone abroad to join my brother in the West Indies.”

“Those are two definite possibilities,” the Marquis agreed, “but you have forgotten a more obvious one.”

Ivana stood looking at him in perplexity.

“What is that?” she asked.

“That your husband might object to your being married to another man!”

Again her face was suffused with colour and now she walked towards the bow window to sit down on the window seat looking out with what the Marquis was sure were unseeing eyes.

“Do you love him very much?” he asked unexpectedly.

“Y-yes –
yes
– of course.”

“Even though he has been away for so long?”

“That is – inevitable – when a man is a – sailor.”

“Perhaps you were unwise in the first place to marry a man who was wedded to the sea.”

Ivana drew in her breath.

“I cannot – think that this concerns – your Lordship in – any way.”

“I am concerning myself with your safety,” the Marquis replied. “Is your husband likely to be relegated to half-pay? In which case he will be able to be here with you.”

“I-I don’t – know.”

“If you will give me his full name, his rank, the ship in which he is serving, I will talk to the First Lord of the Admiralty and find out exactly what will happen to him.”

“I – would not wish to put your Lordship to – so much trouble.”

“It will be no trouble and then I should no longer have to worry about you.” “There is – no need for you to – do that.”

“There is every need. What has happened here this afternoon could easily happen again.”

He saw a little shiver run through her thin body and he went on relentlessly,

“And next time I might not be here to save you.”

“Perhaps Nanny and I should – go away once the sailors are better.”

“How soon will that be?”

“In about three or four weeks.”

“Anything might happen in that time.”

Ivana turned to look at him.

“Please – my Lord – don’t – frighten me. In future I will have a loaded pistol by my bed at night – and perhaps one in the study – and if your Lordship will take the – snuffboxes, your watch and the – gold ship back with you to Heathcliffe, there will be nothing valuable left in the house.”

“On the contrary,” the Marquis said, “there will be something of inestimable value.”

He saw the question in her eyes and he said quietly,

“You!”

Their eyes met and Ivana felt it was impossible to look away.

Then, after what seemed to be a long time, the Marquis said,

“Now we get back to the same question – the one you have still not answered – what about your husband?”

Ivana turned her head away so that the Marquis could see only her profile silhouetted against the diamond panes of the window.

It struck him that her features were not only as perfect as Rose’s, but there was something distinctly spiritual about her whole face which could certainly not be said of any other beauty he had ever seen.

He thought too that there was something very gallant in the way she had fought with no money and little help to assist the wounded men.

If every woman in England had the same compassion for the men who had fought against the tyranny of Bonaparte there would be far less suffering and far less dissatisfaction amongst the members of the armed forces.

They were silent for some minutes before the Marquis said,

“I am waiting!’’

“I-I have – nothing to say.”

“Then you have no wish for me to enquire about your husband’s future?”

“You have other interests – my Lord – to occupy you. Forget about – Flagstaff Manor.”

“If you are suggesting that we should return to the battle that raged between my father and your grandfather, I can hardly think, Ivana, that you and I are likely to be adversaries on the same scale.”

“I – hope not.”

“It would be far easier for us to be friends and for you to allow me to help you.”

“I thought you were – intending to have me – hanged!”

“Do you really believe I would have done that?”

She glanced at him and there was a shy smile on her lips.

“You – frightened me at the – time.”

“That is what I wanted to do because I thought you deserved it. But now I am not so sure that you deserve anything, except perhaps congratulations and a medal.”

Ivana’s eyes seemed to light up.

“Have George and Tim made you change your mind?”

“Not George and Tim,” the Marquis replied, “but a very valiant lady called Ivana!”

“Now you are teasing me, but I would like your – reassurance that I am not to go to – prison.”

“I will leave you free.”

“And you will not dismiss Marky?”

“That is a different matter altogether.”

“Then, if you will not let him off, I must be – punished too. I will go to prison or be – hanged if that is what you prefer.”